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IGN Preview of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Not to be outdone by Persona 3, there was yet another Shin Megami Tensei game on display in Atlus' E3 booth. Armed with the subtitle of Devil Summoner, this game is very different from past Shin Megami games because this is an action RPG instead of a traditional RPG.
Devil Summoner is also unlike other games from the franchise because it's more like a detective game. Your character, Kuzunoha Raidou the 14th, is actually the bridge between Western customs and Eastern beliefs, which is a theme that comes up prevalently throughout the game. The game takes place in a world themed in the early 1900s Taishou era Japan, before the events of World War II.
Like we said before, Devil Summoner is actually an action RPG, which means all of your battles are done in real time. Raidou is actually quite skilled in combat, brandishing both blade and bullet to vanquish his foes. This also represents the aforementioned struggle between West and East. Raidou is skilled with the pistol, but he's still upholding the traditional Japanese customs.
As a Devil Summoner, you have the unique ability to summon demons into the real world so that they can assist you in your journey. We saw this in two situations. The first was at the beginning of the game, when a strange man refused to give us information. No problem! We summoned a demon (only other devil summoners can see them, apparently) that "ignited" his soul, and forced him to spill the beans. In another instance, we tried talking to some school girls, but they were ignoring us. So we called forth another demon that was able to read their minds. What goes on inside the mind of your typical schoolgirl? Nothing, in fact!
These demons can also help you in battles, if they're summoned. They'll attack, cast spells and defend for you, which will most likely be a big help against the more powerful demons. Like other Shin Megami Tensei titles, you can kill off demons, but you can also weaken them and convince them to join your side. We weren't able to pin down the exact number of demons that you can potentially pick up, but we do know that you can only have one demon out at a time, and you can increase the number that you can store as the game goes on.
Rather than use full 3D environments, pre-rendered 2D environments are used, which may come as an odd choice, but there was a reason for this. Instead of having a full 3D town with very little people populating the world, Atlus decided to go with 2D environments so that they could dedicate most of the processing power to populating the town with as many people as possible. The end result is a game that features a true, living, breathing world that not only looks nice artistically, but technically as well.
There's no solid release date on Devil Summoner just yet, and the version at E3 is in full Japanese, but expect the game to be released sometime later this year. We'll have more information as it becomes available!
©2006-05-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Devil Summoner is also unlike other games from the franchise because it's more like a detective game. Your character, Kuzunoha Raidou the 14th, is actually the bridge between Western customs and Eastern beliefs, which is a theme that comes up prevalently throughout the game. The game takes place in a world themed in the early 1900s Taishou era Japan, before the events of World War II.
Like we said before, Devil Summoner is actually an action RPG, which means all of your battles are done in real time. Raidou is actually quite skilled in combat, brandishing both blade and bullet to vanquish his foes. This also represents the aforementioned struggle between West and East. Raidou is skilled with the pistol, but he's still upholding the traditional Japanese customs.
As a Devil Summoner, you have the unique ability to summon demons into the real world so that they can assist you in your journey. We saw this in two situations. The first was at the beginning of the game, when a strange man refused to give us information. No problem! We summoned a demon (only other devil summoners can see them, apparently) that "ignited" his soul, and forced him to spill the beans. In another instance, we tried talking to some school girls, but they were ignoring us. So we called forth another demon that was able to read their minds. What goes on inside the mind of your typical schoolgirl? Nothing, in fact!
These demons can also help you in battles, if they're summoned. They'll attack, cast spells and defend for you, which will most likely be a big help against the more powerful demons. Like other Shin Megami Tensei titles, you can kill off demons, but you can also weaken them and convince them to join your side. We weren't able to pin down the exact number of demons that you can potentially pick up, but we do know that you can only have one demon out at a time, and you can increase the number that you can store as the game goes on.
Rather than use full 3D environments, pre-rendered 2D environments are used, which may come as an odd choice, but there was a reason for this. Instead of having a full 3D town with very little people populating the world, Atlus decided to go with 2D environments so that they could dedicate most of the processing power to populating the town with as many people as possible. The end result is a game that features a true, living, breathing world that not only looks nice artistically, but technically as well.
There's no solid release date on Devil Summoner just yet, and the version at E3 is in full Japanese, but expect the game to be released sometime later this year. We'll have more information as it becomes available!
©2006-05-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved